12.08.2014

The joy of the winter holiday
season has started to permeate the air. Christmas trees are beginning to light
up the windows of homes lining southern towns as other families anticipate
lighting the Menorah on December 16th for the first night of Hanukkah. Holiday parties fill weekend planners and
seasonal music flows through shops and restaurants. For many people it truly is the "most
wonderful time of the year." But
the sad reality is that not all families will be celebrating this holiday
season, as many will grieve the lives lost to the opioid addiction and overdose
epidemic that is plaguing the southeastern region and the United States at
large. Addiction and overdose take no holiday from destroying or taking lives,
and this year there is particular reason for alarm as reports of heroin begin
to dot the map in rural areas where even five years ago it had never before
been seen.

Celebrate Medication Supported Recovery Through Advocacy

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) declared
September "National Recovery Month" 25 years ago this [past] month. The past
quarter century has witnessed an explosion in our understanding of
addiction as well as why and how different medical treatments for substance use
disorders work. But it isn't neuroscience alone that has enhanced our
understanding and acceptance of evidence based medical treatments for substance
use disorders; The advocacy movement across the spectrum of recovery approaches
has seen an increase in participation, involvement and interest over the past
25 years as well. On this 25th anniversary of National Recovery Month let us
all celebrate medication supported recovery through participating in and
supporting our own patient advocacy movement.

No matter how many days, months or years go by in stable, medication assisted recovery it’s important to remember that triggers remain & that the underlying temptations and urges resulting from our struggle with opiate use never completely go away. A fight with our husband/wife or partner, a death in the family, stress with our family or kids, frustration dealing with the clinic system —- any number of things has the possibility to conjure up old desires to just “make it go away” or long for that “quick fix” that was seemingly able to solve all our problems during our days of active drug use. And it’s easy for us, for me at least, to get lost in a daze of daydreaming about how nice it would be to feel the warmth of that rush as all my problems fade away once again. How nice it would be…

9.01.2014

NAMA Recovery of Tennessee, the Tennessee statewide & Northwestern Georgia Chapter of the National Alliance for Medication Assisted (NAMA) Recovery, will be visiting several opioid treatment programs (OTPs) across the State of Tennessee, Northwestern Georgia & Western North Carolina throughout the month of September!!

When Facing An Epidemic, Advocacy Is Key

Part 2 of 2

"Just that you people who are involved in advocacy, keep up the work. I have seen changes come about because of people becoming involved. It is these who are the real heroes in all this. Without advocacy, changes will not come about within the present system."

-Dr. Vincent Dole

As the southeastern region and our nation at large continue to wrestle with the opioid addiction and overdose epidemic, it is critical that all of us, patients, providers, family, and friends alike, unite as advocates for evidence-based, proven effective medical treatments for opioid addiction. The science and research is clear. Methadone maintenance treatment stands alone as the most evidence based and scientifically proven treatment in all of medicine, yet this life-saving and life-restoring treatment remains one of the most misunderstood, stigmatized, and controversial medical treatments. Knowing the facts and being able to relay the proven truths about medication assisted treatment is an extremely important way we can advocate, but facts and data alone are not enough. The 180-degree turn that opponents and skeptics of methadone and buprenorphine treatment need won’t be due to data alone. We all must be advocates and proclaimers of the truth through our very lives.

Richard Lane was a long-term heroin user who, upon release
from prison in 1967, was instrumental in establishing one of the Nation’s
first methadone treatment programs. In 1974, he became the Executive
Director of Man Alive and later served as Vice President of the American
Methadone Treatment Association (now AATOD) and as Vice Chairman of the
Governor’s Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse in Maryland. Mr. Lane
was a passionate advocate for methadone treatment and, by disclosing his own
treatment experiences, provided inspiration to patients and colleagues
alike.

7.23.2014

Opioid Addiction: A
Brain Disease. So Why Don't You Believe
It?

by Zac Talbott, BA, CMA

Director | NAMA Recovery of Tennessee

Since opioid addiction was first documented in the United
States following the U.S. Civil War of the 1860's and dubbed "the Army
Disease," through the synthesis of heroin a couple decades later and its
marketing by the Bayer Company as a "wonder drug" into the early
1900s, its rise among minorities and the poor in the mid-20th century, to its
resurgence in the middle class today due largely to the rise of the "pill
mill" and Purdue Pharmaceutical's effective marketing of OxyContin during
a time the American Medical Association was decrying the "under
treatment" of chronic pain,
dependence on opioids has long been referred to as a
"disease." But an unfortunate reality remains that many, including
the 12 step fellowships like Narcotics Anonymous, call it a disease yet don't
truly embrace the disease theory due to their rejection of its medical
treatment. So why is it that many today,
even within the field of substance use and medication assisted treatment, don't
fully believe or embrace the disease concept?

Patients and providers of medication assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid dependence with methadone or buprenorphine have been saturated with the word "recovery" in recent years. Even our NAMA Recovery-sponsored and SAMHSA-funded MAT peer support project's name is the Medication Assisted Recovery Services (MARS™) Project. So what does the word "recovery" mean, and is it a good thing or a bad thing that the MAT community has become so centered around this word?

1.23.2014

It seems that I hardly have any free time these days.That is what happens when you have kids, try
to maintain a career, and still somehow manage to dedicate time to your own
passions in this life.As we become more
and more consumed with families, and work, and socialization, we find that it
is harder and harder to give our time away.But, to some of us- there is nothing we do that is more valuable.

NIDA News (National Institute on Drug Abuse)

ASAM Magazine (American Society of Addiction Medicine)

Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) Blog & Updates

Check out NAMA-R's SAMHSA-funded MARS Project!!

Methadone Saves Lives!

Methadone maintenance has been shown to reduce illicit heroin use, decrease the incidence of infectious disease (such as HIV and hepatitis), reduce criminal activity, improve social outcome & reduce mortality. Click the image to read more about the benefits of methadone...

Methadone Treatment is the "Most Effective Treatment"

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Methadone Treatment is the *most* effective treatment option for opioid addiction. Click the image to read more from the CDC...

Methadone Treatment is the "Standard of Care" for Pregnant Women

Methadone has been accepted since the late 1970's to treat opioid addiction during pregnancy and was recommended as the standard of care for the same by a NIH consensus panel in 1998. Click the image to read more about Methadone Treatment as the standard of care for pregnant women...